More User Reviews:

Poured into a Guinness pint glass nearly jet black except for ruby highlights when held to the light,a very thin beige head that was one in a blink atop.Big vanilla/bourbon and sweet brown sugar in the nose,smells very sweet...almost cloying.Thin and borderline watery feel just takes any steam this beer may have had away,flavors of vanilla and brown sugar,faint char but it doesn't impede the sweetness much.Wow this is a clunker,I was hoping for something much better.

A - Deep black with just the faintest dark brown highlights at the edges. Almost no head, just a thin film of creamy off white bubbles. Not much to say, but it does leave a pretty lacing.

S - Alcohol, oak, smoke and some of the deep coffee and licorice notes I love to see in stouts.

T - The coffee flavor is certainly there with a tempered amount of alcohol and a bit of character that seems somewhere between smoke and vanilla and I can only assume comes from the char on the barrel. I like the character but it seems as though it could all be a bit more pronounced and a bit more rounded.

M - This is the weakest character to this beer in my opinion. Light on carbonation, but with only a medium heavy body and lacking the great creaminess I would love to see.

D - This isn't a hard beer to drink but it isn't one that's as complex as the name would suggest. A nice addition to my mix and match 6 pack but not something I'm going to go out of my way to enjoy again.

The beer pours a dark brown color with a tan head. The aroma is very nice and quite complex. I get a lot of bourbon as well as some chocolate, vanilla, maple and dark fruit. The flavor is just as complex. The chocolate and roasted malt come through very strong, but the flavor also has all of the components you expect from a bourbon barrel aged beer. I get some bourbon whiskey notes as well as some maple, oak and vanilla. Medium to thick mouthfeel and low to medium carbonation. A very nice barrel-aged stout. Glad I got to try this one.

Poured from a bottle and wow, so much popping from all of the carbonation. Way too much for the style IMO and I haven't even tasted it yet. Smell is of weak coffee and roasts. No bourbon. Taste has much less body than I want for a stout. THERE'S the carbonation. So much, too much. Still no hint of bourbon. I taste mild malt. Taste kind of watered down with a mild coffee finish. If you are curious to try this, I would recommend buying a single bottle before buying the 4 pack, if possible.

A-Poured from a twelve ounce bottle into a Duvel tulip. Very dark brown to black with a thick and tight two finger head that dissipates in about a minute or so. Moderate lacing left on the glass.

S-Roasted barley and Bourbon. Not as much Bourbon in the nose as I had anticipated.

T-The Bourbon flavor comes through nicely but isn't overpowering. It comes more on the back of the pallet. Up front you get a lot of the chocolate malt flavors and a little bit of hop bitterness.

M-Nice and smooth, perfectly carbonated. Enough to coat the pallet but not really overly heavy.

D-Probably one of the easier drinking barrel aged stouts around. I'm not sure of the ABV but there is really very little alcohol presence detected. Overall a well done Bourbon barrel stout from Bluegrass.

A: Watery looking pour, next to no head. Black in the center with dark brown highlights in the light. Somewhat disappointing.

S: Light roasted malts with moderate bourbon smell. Not as overpowering as I have gotten used to with bourbon barrel stouts, but nice smelling in its own right.

T: The bourbon flavors are very subdued, maybe a bit too much so. Still, the malts pair with the bourbon very nicely provide good flavor. Would love to see this one taken up a notch, but it's still pretty tasty.

M: Way too thin. This beer really falls down here. It isn't the thinnest stout I have ever had, but it needs more body!

D: In all, it isn't a bad beer. I'll pay more for a more substantial stout any day, though.

Solid pssffft upon prying the tap, and the oversized bubbly head both suggest an over-carbonated stout. Given the appearance, the aroma suggests this could be an infected bottle: it smels dank and sour. There is a hint of bourbon and maybe the dank is just from the oak barrel. ... (sips)... Definitely over-carbonated. Flavor features spoiled dark grains. It's drinkable, barely, at best. ... (a few more sips) ... actually, I think I'd rather pour this out and have a good beer.

Tastes lightly syrupy with lots of roasted malt. Chocolate and coffee come into the mix for sure. The bourbon lurks pretty subdued in the background more than I would prefer frankly. Not quite as big as I as expecting or am used to but is still drinkable though.

Mouthfeel is a little thin to to medium bodied with very light carbonation.

Overall is ok at best. I grabbed a 4-pack of this and can't really see myself doing that again.

Appearance: Poured a 12 oz bottle into a tulip glass. Very little head, what is present is a cardboard color and quickly dissipates. Extremely dark brown almost pitch black. Looks pretty tasty.

Aroma: Lots of milk chocolate and bourbon with a hint of dark chocolate. Really like the aroma.

Taste: Served fairly cold. At first there is some sweetness and tons of coffee, chocolate, and a little bit of bourbon. The coffee is the overpowering flavor. After letting it warm up a little bit, I'm not all that impressed. It's not that bad like some people here have reviewed, and I don't regret drinking it, but it's not all that great either. Would move onto something else.

Pours an oily black with a toasted solid tan head that looks good while it lasts, though it crackles down to nothing pretty quickly, despite a hard pour.

A surprisingly sedate smell for a bourbon barrel stout. Hints of anise/licorice and gooey melted chocolate come forth, as does a bit of milky sweet cream. Only with warming does the bourbon come through, and it's neither intrusive nor too subdued.

Things improve in the taste department. I still get hints of anise, while the chocolate is bigger and gooier, and a healthy dark roast coffee bean element comes into it. Sweet dark fruits muscle in as well, giving an added edge to the flavor. Bourbon is here, though it didn't bring much wood along with it. It's nice and mellow, really laid back, and that's how I like my bourbon-ed beers. A slightly mineral taste pervades underneath it all, and actually comes out just a little too much in the finish, but chocolate-covered caramels come in strongly and try to snuff that out.

The enjoyment of the flavors is brought down a couple notches due to the surprisingly thin/watery and also too-carbonated texture. A little confusing getting both characteristics together, and in a stout no less. It's not terrible, and would pass if it were any number of other styles. But it's trying to be a premium stout, and something rounder, creamier and smoother would have been better.

I found more to like about it this second tasting than I did the first a couple days ago. This isn't amazing, but the bar has been set so high for bourbon barrel stouts that one performing merely B-level ("good") gets slapped around a lot. I'm not sure that's fair, but hey, life isn't fair, and beer is one of the best things in life, so...just give it a shot and think for yourself.

Nice and dark. Cross between burnt deep brown and a light shade of black. On top is a thick brown head.

Smells like a forest. Earthy flowers and oak, with vanilla in the background.

It tastes like a watered down coffee/cola combination. Peppery notes as well. As the beer warms, the vanilla tickles the tongue.

There's some bitterness all the way through. It starts early with the pepper then finishes with the bittering hops.

It's an easy beer to drink. It's not sweet like a porter, despite the vanilla. While there is some bitterness, it seems to be the right amount. Full-bodied with lots of alcohol, but drinks easier than you'd guess.

It's black, thick, and smooth with a huge, creamy tan head. It was excessively carbonated and took a couple of pours to get it in the glass. The color had me instantly wondering something that unfortunately was true of this beer. Because of the stout characteristics including the roasted, smokey, nutty flavors, the bourbon was really hard to pick up. There were some late woody and vanilla notes, but the bourbon was not as prominent as I would have liked.